#4 - Who Needs Liposuction? I Got Adriamycin!

Let's start from the beginning.  I'll never forget 3rd grade during recess while playing tether ball.  I was in the middle of a smoking game and probably winning when suddenly no one seemed to be keeping score.  Kids on every side of the circle were laughing and pointing.  Where were they pointing?  Everyone of their dirty little fingers was pointed straight at me.  Why were they pointing?  It wasn't because of my tether ball skills.  While I was focused on winning my game, the zipper on my shorts was fighting a losing battle against the power of gravity.
The "open barn door" is a common occurrence on any playground so you wouldn't think this would be a life shattering moment for me.  It probably wouldn't have been except that it was chronic issue in my young life.  In order to understand where we're headed today you must first understand that I was kind of a chubby kid.  Okay I'm kind of a chubby adult too and I'm good with that...now.  My zipper was positionally challenged because my shorts were too small.  My shorts were too small because my stomach was too big.  My mom had been teaching me hold in my stomach but I hadn't quite mastered this intro to belly hiding technique.
So what does any of this have to do with cheering up?  Weight is on everyone's mind all the time.  We see what we're supposed to look like on TV, in magazines, and on the dummies that display the outfitses we want buy in the stores we shop at (The same outfits are on the manikin's too).  If it's true that the average person is overweight in our country today than it means that the average cancer fighter is or was overweight as well.  So here's today's good news for you hard core chemo-heads out there.
Sure you'll have nausea at times and even the smell of food may send you running head first to the porcelain throne.  Of course there are going to be times that just getting out of bed will make your stomach feel like you just got off a roller coaster but there is a bright side.  You, like I, will not have to worry about the curse of the fallen zipper.  You don't need to stress over "sucking it in" to get those jeans on.  Truth is you're biggest problem will be tightening down that belt another notch cuz those jeans you bought a year ago promising yourself that you would fit into that size again some day are now just a little too big.

Some of you may be thinking to yourself, how can he talk like this.  Let me remind you that when life hands you lemons you make lemonade.  Since lemonade will make most caner fighters throw up I say when life injects you with chemo that makes you really sick go shopping and find an outfit you always thought wouldn't fit your body type!
The point is this.  Find the bright side in every dark thing you're going through and Cheer Up you may getting nauseous lot more lately but you won't have to spend $22 a week plus food to Jenny Craig to shed those extra LBS!